Let it SNOW!!!

Yesterday we woke up to a winter wonderland and a village covered in white. Snow is such a thrill for us and we are loving all the excitement of this season. These next few days we plan on drinking red wine, walking in the snowing woods, listening to Christmas music and maybe a few films.
In other news, we are having some issues with our laptop so until we get that sorted our blog posts from now on might only be iPhone photos. We'll just have to see what happens.
This week we had a great 4 day trip, driving down to Austria and Italy with my parents. Hopefully we can share some of our photos from our other Cameras soon.
-kim

26 countries

The other week I did a little count and worked out I have been to 26 countries (other than the country of my birth) in my 24 years of living. I am pretty proud of this. In 2008 the count was at 21, just after I had my 21st birthday, and I am pretty happy that as my 25th birthday comes up in June, I have brought the country count up again, greater than my age. I hope as the years go on I can keep on traveling and explore more and more countries.

At this point in time I have spent time in the following counties:
Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Wales.

I know morgan and I have a few more countries we will explore in Europe in the next 12 months, and can't wait to see where that next place will be. But for now, I am happy with my memories so far of all the places I have been.

The following photos are from a trip I did in 2008, in which I went to 15 countries (mostly in Europe) with my friend Esther. Most of the photos used are hers.
-kim

2012: a review

Last year was a massive year for us, and it has been so so fun to be able to share it with you all here on the blog. Here are a few facts and figures about how we spent 2012.

362 = days spent outside of Australia
46 = number of beds slept in around the world
6 (Kim) & 8 (Morgan)= weeks of paid work
7 1/2 = months in France
15 1/2 = Countries visited (we never slept in Italy but went twice)
USA, Iceland, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Scotland, Norway, England, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey.
16 = cities/villages we stayed in France
9500 = km's driven in our Renault 4L around France
12 = number of airplane flights
6 = number of long haul bus trips (2-12 hours)
10 = number of long haul train trips (2-10 hours)
100 = Kg of baggage on arrival back in Australia
15,000 = estimate amount of AU$ we spent while away

We never would have of guessed what 2012 would have been like. Had we have known what was in store, maybe we would not have done it all, but we have absolutely no regrets. We have made so many new friends this year and had so many incredible encounters. As we look back, we are often overwhelmed at how amazing life can be. We are so pumped for 2013 and have even more unknown expectations as to what will come in the year ahead, but what ever it is, it is sure to be great.
-morgan and kim

Heading East

We are off again and starting the next stage of our year. Its pretty hard to stay still in Europe, with so many exciting and interesting places in such a close proximity, so we aren't. Today we head to Prague and begin a 2 month train trip through Eastern Europe. We will be heading through Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, and ending in Turkey. Above is a little map of our travels from when we left Paris in mid September, to the end of December. Not yet sure what we will do next year, but Turkey seems to be a lovely place to escape for winter.
-m&k

Vienna, Austria

Wien, as its called round these parts is a beauty. We have fallen in love with this city very quickly. With its historic buildings, beautiful parks, street art, coffee houses and over all vintage feel this place is well worth a visit. Tomorrow we head to Budapest, and as excited as we are, our time was not long enough here in Vienna. One highlight - obviously the coffee houses with their Art Deco interiors which haven't changed a bit since they opened. We were lucky enough to be around on a Saturday and our favorite thing to do is visit the flea markets. Kim fulfilled her dream of owning a nutcracker and we bought some lovely books for our train trips ahead. Although we have not eaten traditionally, we have found some little gems of restaurants. Everything from wood fired pitas, Europes best falafel, sushi and a face sized schnitzel. Once again, sorry about the poor quality photos (still working on the Brocken laptop) but feel free to follow us "morganandkim" on Instagram.
-morgan